In the electronic information age, people may share, access, and disseminate high volumes of information. The ease of disseminating information electronically is empowering. At the same time, the workforce has become increasingly mobile, and the ubiquity of high-speed Internet access, smart mobile devices, and portable storage means that “the office” may be anywhere. As a consequence, it has become more difficult than ever for organizations to organize and control data storage. Enterprises may implement a variety of different types of data management systems (e.g., data-loss-prevention systems, security systems, virtualization systems, etc.) to control, protect, and manage data.
Traditional data management systems may employ a variety of technologies to evaluate, organize, and/or protect data. Unfortunately, traditional data management systems may only evaluate, organize, and/or protect data after the data has been written to a storage system. This approach of traditional data management systems may have a variety of disadvantages. For example, sensitive data may been compromised if the data is written to an unsecure location before it is identified and moved to a secure location. Furthermore, valuable system resources (e.g., network bandwidth, memory, etc.) may not be used efficiently if data is written to a storage system and later moved by a data management system. What is needed, therefore, is a more effective mechanism for managing data.